No, not the award winning beer, although that does have a special place in my heart because of my father’s love for it.
I’m talking about the openly gay Portland mayor who slept with an 18-year old and then lied about it. But then he was busted and now people want him to resign. Now here’s the thing: Lying is absolutely wrong, especially when a politician does it, because they are our leaders and we should be able to trust them. But let’s face some facts, shall we?
1) Politicians are almost ALWAYS hiding something. They shouldn’t be. But they are. Maybe it’s something innocuous that has nothing, really, to do with their job (like having sex with a young co-worker) or maybe it’s something serious that has dire political implications (Watergate). But they are always hiding something. Possibly even our new president, though he seems to be pretty forthright about everything so far, including past drug use.
2) It wasn’t something serious. He had consensual sex with an (albeit barely) adult. Neither of them was married to anyone else. It’s perfectly legal, fine from a moral standpoint (depending on how you feel about workplace romances, I suppose), and none of our damned business.
3) Portland may have elected an openly gay mayor but it’s still not considered 100% OK to be gay in this country. It should be, but it isn’t. Do you think maybe he would have been more open about it if it had been an 18 year old girl? Or if Prop 8 hadn’t proven that this country is still filled with told-you-so bigots? I think he definitely would have been.
He should have stuck to his guns and told the truth (unlike Clinton). But he didn’t. It still has no bearing on his ability to serve (like Clinton) Portland in mayoral capacity.
1 Comment
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Effed by the Wind 
Agreed on all counts. Also, I am not bothered with the lying when the question asked is wholly inappropriate–and a candidate’s legal, consensual sex life is an inappropriate topic.